Rena SHERESHEVSKAYA

Piano

Ecole normale de musique de Paris

“From Rémi Geniet to Lucas Debargue, the Russian pedagogue has trained and advised the finest pianists of the young French generation. … Guilty of the offence of initiating — of initiating the crème de la crème of French pianism into the complex science of interpretation. Guilty of having, for twenty-five years, put keyboard players of all ages, levels and backgrounds to the test. The only test that, for her, allows a pianist to know who they truly are: “Where does playing end and interpretation begin? I always tell my students that playing must be easy. What is difficult is interpreting. Not playing the notes, but making them sound.”

Thierry Hillériteau, “Rena Shereshevskaya – the Empress of the Piano”, Le Figaro, 7 August 2018.

A highly sought-after piano teacher who has trained a constellation of young pianists among the most renowned of our time (Alexandre Kantorow, Lucas Debargue, Rémi Geniet, and many others), the pianist Rena Shereshevskaya has been named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters and Honorary Professor of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute of Music and Pedagogy in Moscow. She is the recipient of the International Ippolitov-Ivanov Prize in the field of music pedagogy “for an exceptional contribution to the development of world musical culture”.

A graduate of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and holder of a Doctorate in Teaching and Performance, she taught for twelve years at the Central Special School for Gifted Children affiliated with the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and headed the piano department at the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute of Music and Pedagogy in Moscow.

In 1993, invited to France by the National Conservatory of Colmar to organize a specialized program for gifted children, she settled there with her family. Alongside her teaching activity in Colmar, she also taught at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM), the Conservatory of Rueil-Malmaison, and the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, where she continues to teach today. Rena Shereshevskaya gives masterclasses and public interpretation courses worldwide, both at academies and festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron in France, Verbier and Sion in Switzerland, New Paltz in the United States, the Académie de Nice and the Académie du Grand Nancy in France, as well as in conservatories in France, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Spain (including the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne and the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid). She is also a jury member of major international competitions such as Long-Thibaud (France), Santander (Spain), Géza Anda (Switzerland), Montreal (Canada), Maj Lind (Finland), among others.

Her students perform in the most prestigious concert halls across four continents (Carnegie Hall in New York, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau, Philharmonie de Paris, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, etc.). She has also published numerous articles on issues of music pedagogy in French, Russian and Swiss journals, among others. She has trained many prizewinners of major international competitions, including Alexandre Kantorow (First Prize and Grand Prix at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, 2019), Lucas Debargue (Fourth Prize and Special Prize of the Moscow Music Critics at the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, 2015), Rémi Geniet (Second Prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, Brussels, 2013, and winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, New York, 2015), Marcel Tadokoro (Third Prize at the 20th Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, Spain, 2022, and two special prizes at the Cliburn Piano Competition, USA, 2022), Slava Guerchovitch (First Grand Prize, Prize for Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Work, and Shigeru Kawai Prize at the Épinal International Piano Competition, France, 2022), Julian Trevelyan (Second Prize, Prize for Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto and Audience Prize at the Géza Anda International Competition, Zurich, 2021), Dmitry Sin (First Prize, Mozart Prize and Audience Prize at the 18th MozArte International Piano Competition, Aachen, Germany, 2022, and laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, Brussels, 2021), Aleksandr Kliuchko (Third Prize at the 19th Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, Spain, 2018), Maroussia Gentet (First Prize and all special prizes at the 13th Orléans International Piano Competition, France, 2018), Masha Esaulova and Narek Galajan (piano duo, Prize of Honour at the Léopold Bellan International Piano Competition, France, 2018), Aimo Pagin (First Prize at the Premio Pianistico Pausilypon, Naples, 2006), and many others.

Alongside her intense pedagogical career, she performs in chamber music with internationally renowned musicians. She also forms a duo with her daughter, mezzo-soprano Victoria Shereshevskaya; the duo appears at numerous festivals in France and across Europe. She is also the founder and artistic director of the festival “Les Dynasties et les Familles Artistiques”, which was held for several years in Vitré and later in Taverny.